Peru experimental study : an evaluation of fertility and child health information

These issues include: the merits of a truncated (6-year) vs. a full birth history; the significance of questions on fetal deaths for estimating infant mortality and fertility; the potential of a 6-year calendar for the collection of monthly data on contraceptive practice, breastfeeding, amenorrhea, postpartum abstinence and exposure to risk; the usefulness of the calendar for collecting monthly data on a woman"s employment history and residence history; the merits of different approaches to collecting data on immunizations and diarrhea in young children; and the effects of variations in questions about other topics, e.g., fertility preferences, coital frequency, knowledge of methods, availability of methods, reasons for non-use, plans for future use, and pregnancy status. Under the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) project, an experimental questionnaire was developed and administered in Peru in 1986 to a national sample of 2,534 women of reproductive age; at the same time, a national sample of 4,997 women were surveyed with the standard DHS questionnaire. This report presents survey results in the above-mentioned study areas, followed by conclusions regarding methodological issues. Overall, the analysis demonstrated the feasibility of both a truncated birth and child death history and a 6-year monthly calendar for the collection of detailed pregnancy and contraceptive records, breastfeeding and amenorrhea information, and marriage, employment, and residence histories. The calendar allows: (1) more complete and accurate reports of contraceptive use (and to a lesser extent, postpartum factors); and (2) collection of kinds of information -- on marriage, employment, etc. -- not obtained in the standard questionnaire. An important result of the experimental survey in Peru has been the development of a new standard questionnaire incorporating the monthly calendar. This questionnaire -- a blend of the experimental version and the standard questionnaire -- is intended primarily for use in countries with moderate or high levels of contraceptive prevalence. It is a blend of the experimental version and the standard questionnaire.